VLAD TRIES PERSUASION

"After that, Zhirinovsky cannot even be called a man." So said Russian member of parliament Yevgenia Tishkovskaya of nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who choked her and pulled her hair during a, uh, debate in the Duma chambers Saturday. Tishkovskaya has filed a $22,000 lawsuit against him. "In Russia, where private abuse of women in commonplace, but public violence is still a shock, Zhirinovsky's actions may have been too much even for some of his supporters," reports Sally Donnelly from Moscow. "In any case, for Moscow intellectuals, it was more evidence that Zhirinovsky is out of control and possibly crazy."